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Car bomb in northern Syria kills at least 15

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoShaam News Network via AP video | AP videoThis image made from video shows the aftermath of a car bomb attack on a market in the town of Darkoush in Idlib province.

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By Bassem MroueAssociated Press • Monday October 14, 2013 11:56 AM

A car bomb in a rebel-held town in northwestern Syria killed at least 15 people and wounded
dozens in a crowded outdoor market today, setting cars on fire and sending people running in panic,
two activist groups said.

The bomb went off in the town of Darkoush in Idlib province, according to the Britain-based
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees. The marketplace was busy
with shoppers on the eve of Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday.

It was not clear who carried out the bombing and why they attacked a civilian target in a
rebel-held area. Syria's conflict has seen an increasing use of car bombings, but most have been
carried out against regime targets, usually by jihadi fighters among rebels.

The Observatory put the death toll at 27, while the Committees said 15 were killed. Such
discrepancies often occur in the aftermath of such attacks.

An amateur video posted on the LCC's Facebook page shows several cars on fire in a street
full of debris. People are seen running in panic as smoke billows from the area, and several shops
and apartment buildings appear heavily damaged. Another video shows men carrying two bodies and
placing them in a blanket. The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to AP reporting on the
events.

Just a day earlier, two car bombs exploded near the state TV building in Damascus. The SANA
news agency said the TV's headquarters in Umayyad Square was damaged in the blast, but there was no
word on casualties.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva confirmed that three of its
employees and one from the Syrian Red Crescent were released, a day after being kidnapped by gunmen
in Idlib province. The fate of three other ICRC employees who were also kidnapped yesterday was not
immediately known.

The Observatory and a local activist in Idlib said the aid workers had been seized by an
al-Qaida-linked group, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, but there was no claim of
responsibility.

Much of the Idlib countryside and other parts of northern and eastern Syria have fallen under
the control of rebels, many of them Islamic extremists. Kidnappings have become common,
particularly of aid workers and foreign journalists.

The intensity of the conflict, which has left more than 100,000 dead, has not abated in the
past two weeks - even as inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
press on with their work to destroy the country's chemical weapons stockpile.

The watchdog agency won a Nobel Peace Prize last week, in a powerful endorsement of its Syria
mission.

Ahmet Uzumcu, head of the OPCW, said today that inspectors have so far visited five of at
least 20 sites linked to chemical weapons. The BBC quoted him as saying that one abandoned site was
in rebel-held territory and that in other cases, routes went through opposition-controlled areas,
preventing access.

"They change hands from one day to another, which is why we appeal to all sides in Syria to
support this mission, to be cooperative and not render this mission more difficult. It's already
challenging," he told the BBC.

The mission stems from a deadly Aug. 21 attack on opposition-held suburbs of Damascus in
which the U.N. determined the nerve agent sarin was used. Hundreds of people were killed, including
many children. The West says the Syrian government was responsible, while Damascus blames the
rebels.

Today marked the date that Syria formally joined the OPCW, 30 days after submitting its
application at the United Nations.

In an interview with the Lebanese Al-Akbar newspaper, Syrian President Bashar Assad was
quoted as saying that his country stopped manufacturing chemical agents in 1997 because they became
an "outdated deterrent." He said Syria has since concentrated on its missile capabilities.

Damascus is believed to have thousands of long-range missiles that can reach targets almost
anywhere inside Israel, its arch enemy.

In the interview, Assad said that ridding Syria of its chemical weapons would present
"neither a moral nor a political loss."

"Developing Syria's missile deterrent force that can be used from the first moments of war
ended the necessity of chemical weapons,' Assad was quoted as saying.

Asked about the OPCW getting the Nobel prize, Assad attempted an apparent joke, saying, "this
prize should have been mine."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the U.N-Arab League envoy for Syria said an
international conference to set up a Syrian transitional government must be organized and held as
soon as possible.

Kerry said Syria urgently needs a transitional government and that it is imperative to get
the so-called "Geneva II" conference organized by a mid-November target.

He also said Assad "has lost the legitimacy to be able to be a cohesive force that could
bring people together."

However, it's not clear if the Syrian political opposition will attend.

In other developments, Syrians lost power in several regions in the country's center as well
as areas on the Mediterranean coast but there was no indication if the power cut was related to the
conflict or result of sabotage.

SANA quoted Minister of Electricity Imad Khamis as saying that a malfunction at a power
station had caused the outage. Khamis said maintenance work was underway and that power will
gradually return in the coming hours.